Dr. Lisa Grill Dodson named campus dean for MCW-Central Wisconsin

Lisa Grill Dodson, MD, has been named Campus Dean of the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW)-Central Wisconsin. Dr. Dodson will provide leadership and management of MCW’s new campus in Central Wisconsin, which expects to welcome its first students in July 2016.

Dr. Dodson is currently the Director of the Oregon Area Health Education Center, a position she has held since 2006. She also is Associate Professor of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.

As Campus Dean of MCW-Central Wisconsin, Dr. Dodson will serve as the primary liaison for health system and academic partners, which are the key elements of the immersive teaching model of the medical education program.

Academic partners include Northcentral Technical College, the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, the University of Wisconsin - Marshfield/Wood County and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which will provide teaching faculty, curriculum and student resources. MCW-Central Wisconsin’s teaching facilities will be located at Aspirus Wausau Hospital and Northcentral Technical College.

Dr. Dodson also will work with health system partners in the program to identify physician preceptors and clerkship directors, and to advocate for and support an increase in graduate medical education positions. Campus health system partners are Aspirus, Inc., Marshfield Clinic, Ministry Health Care, Riverview Hospital and the Tomah VA Medical Center.

Further, she will collaborate with MCW-Central Wisconsin’s Community Advisory Board with regard to the implementation of the community-based medical education program, monitoring of achievement of program goals, enhancement of program visibility and support, and development of community relationships and backing.

Dr. Dodson graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Oregon in 1981. She received her medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1988, followed by a residency and fellowship in family medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).

She practiced family medicine for seven years in the frontier community of John Day, Oregon, where she and her partners trained medical students and residents. Upon returning to the OHSU in 1999, Dr. Dodson became clerkship director for the Rural and Community Health Clerkship, during which she developed the Oregon Rural Scholars Program.

“Dr. Dodson is a tireless advocate for student education and for care to rural and other populations. She has demonstrated her commitment to creating and sustaining a healthcare workforce in rural and non-urban areas through excellence in teaching, mentoring students, leadership, and providing clinical opportunities for rural physicians,” said Joseph E. Kerschner, Executive Vice President of MCW and Dean of the Medical School. “She brings enthusiasm, a wealth of knowledge, community engagement and partnership building to the MCW-Central Wisconsin campus.”

Dr. Dodson’s appointment is effective August 4, 2014. She will be relocating to Central Wisconsin this summer from Lake Oswego, Oregon, with her husband, Peter, a recently retired high school math teacher. They have two adult sons, David and Jason, who reside in the Portland area.

The new medical school campuses in Central Wisconsin and in Green Bay address the need for providers in communities across Wisconsin and will employ an immersive teaching model in which students receive core basic science and clinical experience in the communities in which they learn. Students will be encouraged to practice in the communities in which they train.

Student recruitment recently began for MCW-Green Bay, with matriculation there anticipated for July 2015. Recruitment of medical students for MCW-Central Wisconsin is expected to begin in spring 2015 for matriculation in July 2016.